We are destitute of news, with an awful silence between the armies. We believe this cannot last long, and we know Grant has a great superiority of numbers. And he knows our weakness; for the government will persist in keeping “at the front” local defense troops, smarting under a sense of wrong, some of whom are continually deserting.
The money-changers and speculators, who have lavished their bribes, are all in their places, preying upon the helpless women and children; while the clerks—the permanence of whose tenure of office was guaranteed by the Constitution—are still kept in the trenches, and their families, many of them refugees, are suffering in destitution. But Mr. Seddon says they volunteered. This is not candid. They were told by Mr. Memminger and others that, unless they volunteered, the President had decided their dismissal—when conscription into the army followed, of course!
November 13th.—Bright and cold; ice on the porch. All quiet below, save the booming of bombs every night from our iron-clads, thrown at the workmen in the canal.
There is a dispatch from the West, relating to Gen. Forrest’s operations in Tennessee, understood to be good news. I did not wait to see, knowing the papers will have it to-morrow.
Mr. Hunter was with Mr. Secretary Seddon, as usual, this Sunday morning, begging him not to resign. This is flattery to Mr. Seddon.
November 14th.—Clear and cold.
Lincoln is re-elected, and has called for a million of men! This makes many of our croaking people despondent; others think it only a game of brag.
I saw the President to-day in earnest conversation with several members of Congress, standing in the street. It is not often he descends from his office to this mode of conference.
Some one of the family intimating that stains of blood were on my undershirts (second hand), I was amused to see Mrs. J. lifting them with the tongs. They have been thoroughly washed, and prove to be a first-rate article. I am proud of them, for they are truly comfortable garments.
Gen. Forrest is doing wonders in Tennessee, as the appended dispatch from Gen. Beauregard shows: